New Delhi: Mizo National Front (MNF) president Pu Zoramthanga was sworn in today as Mizoram’s tenth chief minister. This week, the MNF wrested power from a ten-year-old Congress government by winning 26 of the 40 assembly seats. Since its formation as a political party in 1986, this is the first time MNF has succeeded in cornering so many seats in the state assembly.
Also for the first time, an alliance of regional parties, Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), has become the principal opposition with eight seats.
Party leader Tawnluia was named the deputy chief minister, making it the second instance since MNF became a political party in the northeastern state to have a deputy chief minister. Soon after signing the Mizo Accord in 1986, MNF leader Laldenga took over as the chief minister’s post while Lal Thanhawla became his deputy.
The MNF government is also the first in the Northeast which the BJP is not a part ever since the Narendra Modi government took over New Delhi.
Also read: Mizo National Front Wins Majority in Mizoram Assembly Elections
Mizoram governor K. Rajasekharan officiated Zoramthanga’s oath of office. Ten other ministers were also administered the oath of office.
News reports said during the swearing-in ceremony, the national anthem was played followed by a round of readings from the Bible and hymns sung by children. A prayer was led by Reverend Lalmingthanga, the chairman of the Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee, the body of 16 major churches in the state.
This is for the first time prayers were conducted in a swearing in ceremony. The Church had backed the MNF in the assembly polls. The MNF made the poll promise of revoking the Congress government’s order for sale and consumption of alcohol in the State as per Church’s demand. The general contention among the political observers of the state is also that the MNF, a part of the BJP’s North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), kept the BJP out of its government keeping the Church’s sentiments in mind.
Also read: ‘I Won’t Need the BJP to Form Government in Mizoram’: Zoramthanga
MNF sources said the BJP, which bagged a seat for the first time, “put pressure” on the party to include its MLA, Budha Dhan Chakma, in the government. But the MNF decided against it. Chakma left the Congress to join the BJP this past October.
Though BJP’s pointman in the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, initially not only trumpeted the fact that the election of MNF in the state meant that the last bastion of the Congress in the region had fallen, but also tried to project the new government as an “NEDA” government. He even thanked Prime Minister Modi for his “leadership” in helping MNF topple the Congress in the state.
Days before the assembly polls, in an interview to The Wire, Zoramthanga categorically said, “NEDA is a part of NDA. It is an alliance for the general elections, not for any Stat government. We are contesting the assembly polls as MNF and will not need the BJP to form a government. My point is, when you have a wife who is healthy, why make a girlfriend.”
Also read: Mizoram 2018 Results Are a Repeat of 1998 Assembly Elections
Since 2015, all the Congress-held states of the region either turned BJP or BJP-led alliances, thus keeping intact the often-seen trend in a north-eastern political party of aligning itself to the ruling party at the Centre, primarily to keep the central flow of finances unbroken. Except Tripura, where it bagged simple majority on its own, the BJP could form governments in other states after assembly polls only in alliance with regional players.